For This True North Tale I sat down with the drummer of local band The Housemen and president of Music NWT Trevor Sinclair for this True North Tale I’m talking to him about himself, and he started off the chat by telling me the first musical instrument he ever bought was a harmonica, and he quickly realized two things about music, the first thing he realized was, he was really bad at the harmonica, and the second thing was
I realized I didn’t understand music at all, and I didn’t understand the concept of a basic beat and counting. So I got myself a rather affordable little electronic drum kit I was living in Toronto in a semi-detached house wheels way Don’t bother the neighbor too much, and I tried, and it just wasn’t flying so I eventually went to a drum instructor, and he gave me some just awesome real bass lessons and a lot of it was spending my time walking, and so I trained myself in the drums by walking and drumming on my legs as I went
Like the other northern artists I’ve interviewed I asked Trevor what from the territory does he draw inspiration from
as much as I love the landscape and the environment. The people that are here generally tend to love it as well, and it’s what comes out of them, that inspires me so as a drummer. I love being able to support artists, And just, you know, hold that steady beat for them and enjoy their talent, and when I hear them coming out with something creative and unique and I’m like man I could come up with some really cool beat for this that’s the inspiration it’s coming from the people
Trevor talks to me a bit about how it can be hard to balance being a stay at home dad being a part of Music NWT and being in a band himself but the times where it slows down and Trevor just gets to hang out with the NWT music scene or the times he treasures the most,
Sometimes you do fall behind and I have people waiting to get back to them but I think, particularly around the Music NWT thing I’ve been with an amazing board, So again it’s other busy people that are also passionate about it and then it just becomes enjoyable, and even where like I’ve gotten to meet these musicians and we just have random jam nights on my deck of the house because you know that’s COVID safe
And to end off our chat, even though it can really fill up a schedule sometimes Trevor tells us why he loves being the president of music NWT,
Because I get this great exposure to this, this crazy level of talent that’s sitting in such a relatively small population, and just look at our folk in the rocks lineup with all this local talent and it is really amazing talent.- Trevor Sinclair
